DOCSLIB.ORG

Namgyal Institute of Tibetology Gangtok, Sikkim

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Namgyal Institute of Tibetology Gangtok, Sikkim VOLUME 48 NO. 2 2012 NAMGYAL INSTITUTE OF TIBETOLOGY GANGTOK, SIKKIM 0. Bulletin of Tibetology 2012 [Contents] Vol.48 No. 2.indd 1 20/08/13 11:11 AM Patron HIS EXCELLENCY SHRI BALMIKI PRASAD SINGH, THE GOVERNOR OF SIKKIM Advisor TASHI DENSAPA, DIRECTOR NIT Editorial Board FRANZ-KARL EHRHARD ACHARYA SAMTEN GYATSO SAUL MULLARD BRIGITTE STEINMANN TASHI TSERING MARK TURIN ROBERTO VITALI Editor ANNA BALIKCI-DENJONGPA Guest Editor for the Present Issue ROBERTO VITALI Assistant Editors TSULTSEM GYATSO ACHARYA THUPTEN TENZING Typesetting: Gyamtso (AMI, DHARAMSHALA) The Bulletin of Tibetology is published bi-annually by the Director, Namgyal Institute of Tibetology, Gangtok, Sikkim. Annual subscription rates: South Asia Rs 150, Oversea $20. Correspondence concerning Bulletin subscriptions, changes of address, missing issues etc. to: Administrative Officer, Namgyal Institute of Tibetology, Gangtok 737102, Sikkim, India ([email protected]). Editorial correspondence should be sent to the Editor at the same address. Submission guidelines. We welcome submission of articles on any subject on the religion, history, language, art and culture of the people of the Tibetan cultural area and the Buddhist Himalaya. Articles should be in English or Tibetan, submitted by email or on CD along with a hard copy and should not exceed 5,000 words in length. The views expressed in the Bulletin of Tibetology are those of the contributors alone and not of the Namgyal Institute of Tibetology. An article represents the view of the author and does not reflect those of any office or institution with which the author may be associated. PRINTED IN INDIA AT ARCHANA ADVERTISING Pvt. Ltd., NEW DELHI 0. Bulletin of Tibetology 2012 [Contents] Vol.48 No. 2.indd 2 03/10/13 10:30 AM BULLETIN OF TIBETOLOGY Volume 48 Number 2 2012 CONTENTS ROBERTO VITALI: A word from the guest editor 5 Spirit-mediumship in Upper Tibet The vocation of one expert practitioner 7 JOHN VINCENT BELLEZZA Senior Research Fellow, Tibet Center, University of Virginia Lamayuru (Ladakh) – Chenrezik Lhakhang The Bar do thos grol Illustrated as a mural painting 33 KRISTIN BLANCKE Dharamshala An Introduction to Music to Delight all the Sages, the Medical History of Drakkar Taso Trulku Chökyi Wangchuk (1775-1837) 55 STACEY VAN VLEET Columbia University In Memory of Ellis Gene Smith (1936-2010) 81 TASHI TSERING Amnye Machen Institute, Dharamshala Book Review dGon rabs kun gsal nyi snang, The History of Ladakh Monasteries ’Jam dbyangs rgyal mtshan ed. 99 ROBERTO VITALI Dharamshala 0. Bulletin of Tibetology 2012 [Contents] Vol.48 No. 2.indd 3 20/08/13 11:11 AM 0. Bulletin of Tibetology 2012 [Contents] Vol.48 No. 2.indd 4 20/08/13 11:11 AM A WORD FROM THE GUEST EDITOR When in November 2011 I was asked to be guest editor of the Bulletin of Tibetology, this was an opportunity for me to continue a work I had happily accepted in the past for other journals from the Himalayan region. I have always been of the opinion that the local journals should play an important role as a source for the study of the cultures they represent. Although important places of learning in the west or other countries of Asia have structures and facilities to do very well, the material coming from the indigenous regions, despite many difficulites, keeps on inspiring research and writing. To pursue this line of thinking I planned to ask a few authors who hang around the place in the Himalaya where I have been living for a good number of years to take out from their drawers some of their writings and contribute to this issue of the Bulletin I was asked to take care of. They are voices of the Himalaya for a Himalayan journal. I am grateful to them for answering to my call for papers. This issue of the Bulletin of Tibetology focuses on various topics relevant to Tibetology that somewhat exemplify the spectrum into which the studies are progressively expanding. Bellezza steps in little known territory, for he sets the performance of a spirit- medium, hitherto unrecorded in anthropological studies, into the context of traditions that go back to time immemorial by finding parallels in documents of remarkable antiquity. He analyses the liturgy of the performance and identifies classes of spirits associated with it. Blancke’s work, besides dealing with the depiction on a wall of a theme that hardly appears elsewhere in murals with similar completeness, is refreshing because it deals with visuals but, for once, not from an art historical perspective. She opts for a study on how the painter has chosen to represent the steps the soul goes through in the Bar do state, in a combination of pictorial solutions and doctrinal requirements. Stacey Van Vleet provides a preliminary insight into one aspect of Brag dkar rTa so sprul sku Chos kyi dbang phyug (1775-1837)’s multifaceted expertise, the medical one. Her introduction to his work Drang srong kun tu dgyes pa’i rol mo is meant to shed light on his personality and studies, the context in which he worked, and to look into some of his main doctrinal points in relation with the scholasticism of earlier periods. Tashi Tsering pays homage to Gene Smith, the doyen of Tibetan literature. He refrains in the most from recollections of his past interactions with him but focuses on the significance of Gene’s life activity and the heritage he has left 0. Bulletin of Tibetology 2012 [Contents] Vol.48 No. 2.indd 5 20/08/13 11:11 AM for the benefit of the studies. Tashi Tseing’s piece is in the best tradition of the Bulletin of Tibetology, where homage has always been paid to great souls from the Tibetan and Himalayan world. Roberto Vitali November 2012 0. Bulletin of Tibetology 2012 [Contents] Vol.48 No. 2.indd 6 20/08/13 11:11 AM SPIRIT-MEDIUMSHIP IN UPPER TIBET 7 SPIRIT-MEDIUMSHIP IN UPPER TIBET The vocation of one expert practitioner1 JOHN VINCENT BELLEZZA Senior Research Fellow, Tibet Center, University of Virginia INTRODUCTION This paper introduces a prominent shaman or spirit-medium from Upper Tibet named Lha-pa bSam-gtan (Lhapa Samten).2 The standing he enjoys among his peers signals that he is among the most highly respected spirit-mediums in sTod and Byang-thang. Despite facing formidable administrative and legal obstacles, the spirit-mediums of the Tibetan upland are still active today. Known in Tibetan as lha-pa, lha-mo, dpa’-bo, dpa’-mo, klu-mo, etc., these indomitable men and women are believed to embody various divinities for the benefit of their communities. Many of the deities purported to participate in the trance ceremonies also have their abodes in the vast Tibetan upland, while others are of Indic origin. Spirit-mediumship (lha-’babs) constitutes one of the most intriguing and least studied religious phenomena in Tibet. It is predicated on the perceived possession of human beings by spirits as a special method of healing and prognostication, with resonance the world over.3 1 The fieldwork upon which this paper is based was generously supported by financial contributions from the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation (New York). The transcription of Lhapa Samten’s utterances and its translation into English was made with the assistance of Yungdrung Tenzin, a Tibetan literato from sTeng-chen with whom I have worked for many years. 2 To protect the identity of this individual he appears in this paper under an assumed name. The tradition of spirit-mediumship is considered very sensitive and is officially discouraged in the Tibet Autonomous Region. 3 In Calling Down the Gods (2005: 37), I announce that important spirit-mediums hailing from Upper Tibet not appearing in this work would be given due attention in subsequent publications. In the mid-2000s, I did indeed interview several more eminent practitioners, making audio records of their utterances during trance ceremonies. This paper and one delivered at the International Association of Tibetan Studies conference in Bonn, in 2006 (see Bellezza 2011), initiate the process of presenting this ethnographic and linguistic material. Studies of the spirit-mediums of Upper Tibet have also been made by Berglie 1980; 1978; 1976; Diemberger 2005. 1. Bulletin of Tibetology 2012 [Bellezza ] Vol.48 No. 2.indd 7 20/08/13 11:40 AM 8 JOHN VINCENT BELLEZZA The tradition of spirit-mediumship flourished in the Tibetan highlands for untold centuries. It is widely reported that spirit-mediums were active in virtually every corner of this vast region; its pastoral and agrarian settlements supporting many of these esoteric practitioners in the pre-modern period. My fieldwork indicates that nowadays there are only around two dozen senior spirit-mediums left in the entire region, representing a precipitous decline in their numbers over the last fifty years. Spirit-mediumship in Upper Tibet is characterized by a system of healing and augury heavily dependent on Buddhist philosophy and praxis. Traditionally, the channeling of the gods relied on the sanction and patronage of Lamaist authorities. The most important function attributed to these religious figures was the ability to discern authentic practitioners from charlatans and those considered demonically possessed. This was accomplished through the use of various methods of divination and special powers of insight. Despite coming under the auspices of lamas, in the very sparsely populated Byang-thang, spirit-mediums were able to maintain a high degree of socio-cultural autonomy due to the paucity of major Buddhist and g.Yung-drung (Eternal) Bon monastic centers in the region. While the doctrinal basis and ritual cast of Upper Tibetan spirit-mediuimship is largely Lamaist in nature, non-Buddhist customs and traditions are also quite well conserved.4 The role of native mountain and lake deities (lha-ri, lha- mtsho) in possession, the protective cult of warrior gods (dgra-lha), the striking zoomorphism of healing spirits, and the use of ritual instruments such as the draped arrow and flat-bell remain conspicuous elements of Upper Tibetan spirit- mediumship that all appear to be of indigenous cultural inspiration.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Location: Tibet Lies at the Centre of Asia, with an Area of 2.5 Million Square Kilometers. the Earth's Highest Mountains, a Vast
    Location: Tibet lies at the centre of Asia, with an area of 2.5 million square kilometers. The earth's highest mountains, a vast arid plateau and great river valleys make up the physical homeland of 6 million Tibetans. It has an average altitude of 13,000 feet above sea level. Capital: Lhasa Population: 6 million Tibetans and an estimated 7.5 million Chinese, most of whom are in Kham and Amdo. Language: Tibetan (of the Tibeto-Burmese language family). The official language is Chinese. Tibet is comprised of the three provinces of Amdo (now split by China into the provinces of Qinghai, Gansu & Sichuan), Kham (largely incorporated into the Chinese provinces of Sichuan, Yunnan and Qinghai), and U-Tsang (which, together with western Kham, is today referred to by China as the Tibet Autonomous Region). The Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) comprises less than half of historic Tibet and was created by China in 1965 for administrative reasons. It is important to note that when Chinese officials and publications use the term "Tibet" they mean only the TAR. Tibetans use the term Tibet to mean the three provinces described above, i.e., the area traditionally known as Tibet before the 1949-50 invasion. Today Tibetans are outnumbered by Han Chinese population in their own homeland, there are est. 6 million Tibetans and an estimated 7.5 million Chinese, most of whom are in Kham and Amdo. The official language is Chinese. But those Tibetans living in exile still speak, read and write in Tibetan (of the Tibeto-Burmese language family).
    [Show full text]
  • Big Love: Mandala Magazine Article
    LAMA YESHE, PASHUPATINATH TEMPLE, NEPAL, 1980. PHOTO BY TOM CASTLES, COURTESY OF LAMA YESHE WISDOM ARCHIVE. 26 MANDALA | July - December 2019 A MONUMENTAL ACCOMPLISHMENT: THE MAKING OF Big Love BY LAURA MILLER The creation of FPMT founder Lama Yeshe’s official biography has been a monumental task. Work on the forthcoming book, Big Love: The Life and Teachings of Lama Yeshe, has spanned three decades. To understand the significance of this project as it draws to a close, Mandala talked to three key people, all early students of Lama Yeshe, about the production of the book: Adele Hulse, Big Love’s author; Peter Kedge, who initiated and helped fund the project; and Nicholas Ribush, who is overseeing the book’s publication at the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive. Big Love: The Life and Teachings of Lama Yeshe begins with a refugee Tibetan monks. Together, the two lamas encountered their simple dedication: “This book is dedicated to you, the reader. first Western student, Zina Rachevsky, in 1967 in Darjeeling. The If you met Lama during your life, may you feel his presence here. following year, they went to Nepal, where they soon established If you never met Lama, then come with us—walk up the hill to Kopan Monastery on the outskirts of Kathmandu and later Kopan and meet Lama Yeshe, as thousands did, without knowing founded the international FPMT organization. anything of Buddhism or Tibet. That came later.” “Since then, His Holiness the Dalai Lama has been to many Within the biography’s nearly 1,400 pages, Lama Yeshe comes countries and now has a great reputation and has received many to life.
    [Show full text]
  • Opening Speech Liao Yiwu
    About the 17th Karmapa Liao Yiwu On the morning of 4 June, 1989, a contingent of over two hundred thousand soldiers surrounded the Chinese capital of Beijing, where they opened fire on unarmed protesters in a massacre at Tiananmen Square that shook the entire world. On 5 March of that same year, there had been another large massacre in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, news of this earlier event had been effectively suppressed. Because of the absence of the Western news media, the PLA’s cold- blooded killing of Tibetan protesters was never recorded on camera. The holy city of Lhasa was about ten times smaller than Beijing at that time, and Bajiao Square where the massacre took place was about ten times smaller than Tiananmen Square, and yet over ten thousand peaceful protesters assembled in that narrow square, where they clashed with some fifteen thousand heavily-armed soldiers. As a result of this encounter, more than three hundred civilians lost their lives, another three thousand were imprisoned, and the “worst offenders” were subsequently sentenced to death. The Jokhang Temple located next to the Potala Palace was attacked and occupied by army troops because it was flying the Snow Lion Flag of Tibetan independence, and it was burned to the ground along with its precious copy of the Pagoda Scriptures, a text which symbolizes the dignity of Tibetan Esoteric Buddhism. Tens of thousands of Tibetan Buddhists stood in the street bewailing the loss of their sacred text, and the lamas continually tried to rush into the burning temple to rescue the scriptures, but were shot down amidst the flames.
    [Show full text]
  • The Life and Times of Mingyur Peldrön: Female Leadership in 18Th Century Tibetan Buddhism
    The Life and Times of Mingyur Peldrön: Female Leadership in 18th Century Tibetan Buddhism Alison Joyce Melnick Ann Arbor, Michigan B.A., University of Michigan, 2003 M.A., University of Virginia, 2008 A Dissertation presented to the Graduate Faculty of the University of Virginia in Candidacy for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Religious Studies University of Virginia August, 2014 ii © Copyright by Alison Joyce Melnick All Rights Reserved August 2014 iii Abstract This dissertation examines the life of the Tibetan nun Mingyur Peldrön (mi 'gyur dpal sgron, 1699-1769) through her hagiography, which was written by her disciple Gyurmé Ösel ('gyur med 'od gsal, b. 1715), and completed some thirteen years after her death. It is one of few hagiographies written about a Tibetan woman before the modern era, and offers insight into the lives of eighteenth century Central Tibetan religious women. The work considers the relationship between members of the Mindröling community and the governing leadership in Lhasa, and offers an example of how hagiographic narrative can be interpreted historically. The questions driving the project are: Who was Mingyur Peldrön, and why did she warrant a 200-folio hagiography? What was her role in her religious community, and the wider Tibetan world? What do her hagiographer's literary decisions tell us about his own time and place, his goals in writing the hagiography, and the developing literary styles of the time? What do they tell us about religious practice during this period of Tibetan history, and the role of women within that history? How was Mingyur Peldrön remembered in terms of her engagement with the wider religious community, how was she perceived by her followers, and what impact did she have on religious practice for the next generation? Finally, how and where is it possible to "hear" Mingyur Peldrön's voice in this work? This project engages several types of research methodology, including historiography, semiology, and methods for reading hagiography as history.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism, Revised Edition
    REVISED EDITION John Powers ITTB_Interior 9/20/07 2:23 PM Page 1 Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism ITTB_Interior 9/20/07 2:23 PM Page 2 ITTB_Interior 9/20/07 2:23 PM Page 3 Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism revised edition by John Powers Snow Lion Publications ithaca, new york • boulder, colorado ITTB_Interior 9/20/07 2:23 PM Page 4 Snow Lion Publications P.O. Box 6483 • Ithaca, NY 14851 USA (607) 273-8519 • www.snowlionpub.com © 1995, 2007 by John Powers All rights reserved. First edition 1995 Second edition 2007 No portion of this book may be reproduced by any means without prior written permission from the publisher. Printed in Canada on acid-free recycled paper. Designed and typeset by Gopa & Ted2, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Powers, John, 1957- Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism / by John Powers. — Rev. ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and indexes. ISBN-13: 978-1-55939-282-2 (alk. paper) ISBN-10: 1-55939-282-7 (alk. paper) 1. Buddhism—China—Tibet. 2. Tibet (China)—Religion. I. Title. BQ7604.P69 2007 294.3’923—dc22 2007019309 ITTB_Interior 9/20/07 2:23 PM Page 5 Table of Contents Preface 11 Technical Note 17 Introduction 21 Part One: The Indian Background 1. Buddhism in India 31 The Buddha 31 The Buddha’s Life and Lives 34 Epilogue 56 2. Some Important Buddhist Doctrines 63 Cyclic Existence 63 Appearance and Reality 71 3. Meditation 81 The Role of Meditation in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism 81 Stabilizing and Analytical Meditation 85 The Five Buddhist Paths 91 4.
    [Show full text]
  • AN Introduction to MUSIC to DELIGHT ALL the SAGES, the MEDICAL HISTORY of DRAKKAR TASO TRULKU CHOKYI WANGCRUK (1775-1837)’
    I AN iNTRODUCTION TO MUSIC TO DELIGHT ALL THE SAGES, THE MEDICAL HISTORY OF DRAKKAR TASO TRULKU CHOKYI WANGCRUK (1775-1837)’ STACEY VAN VLEET, Columbia University On the auspicious occasion of theft 50th anniversary celebration, the Dharamsala Men-tsee-khang published a previously unavailable manuscript entitled A Briefly Stated framework ofInstructions for the Glorious field of Medicine: Music to Delight All the Sages.2 Part of the genre associated with polemics on the origin and development of medicine (khog ‘bubs or khog ‘bugs), this text — hereafter referred to as Music to Delight All the Sages — was written between 1816-17 in Kyirong by Drakkar Taso Truilcu Chokyi Wangchuk (1775-1837). Since available medical history texts are rare, this one represents a new source of great interest documenting the dynamism of Tibetan medicine between the 1 $th and early 19th centuries, a lesser-known period in the history of medicine in Tibet. Music to Delight All the Sages presents a historical argument concerned with reconciling the author’s various received medical lineages and traditions. Some 1 This article is drawn from a more extensive treatment of this and related W” and 1 9th century medical histories in my forthcoming Ph.D. dissertation. I would like to express my deep gratitude to Tashi Tsering of the Amnye Machen Institute for sharing a copy of the handwritten manuscript of Music to Delight All the Sages with me and for his encouragement and assistance of this work over its duration. This publication was made possible by support from the Social Science Research Council’s International Dissertation Research Fellowship, with funds provided by the Andrew W.
    [Show full text]
  • The Systematic Dynamics of Guru Yoga in Euro-North American Gelug-Pa Formations
    University of Calgary PRISM: University of Calgary's Digital Repository Graduate Studies The Vault: Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2012-09-13 The systematic dynamics of guru yoga in euro-north american gelug-pa formations Emory-Moore, Christopher Emory-Moore, C. (2012). The systematic dynamics of guru yoga in euro-north american gelug-pa formations (Unpublished master's thesis). University of Calgary, Calgary, AB. doi:10.11575/PRISM/28396 http://hdl.handle.net/11023/191 master thesis University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission. Downloaded from PRISM: https://prism.ucalgary.ca UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY The Systematic Dynamics of Guru Yoga in Euro-North American Gelug-pa Formations by Christopher Emory-Moore A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS DEPARTMENT OF RELIGIOUS STUDIES CALGARY, ALBERTA SEPTEMBER, 2012 © Christopher Emory-Moore 2012 Abstract This thesis explores the adaptation of the Tibetan Buddhist guru/disciple relation by Euro-North American communities and argues that its praxis is that of a self-motivated disciple’s devotion to a perceptibly selfless guru. Chapter one provides a reception genealogy of the Tibetan guru/disciple relation in Western scholarship, followed by historical-anthropological descriptions of its practice reception in both Tibetan and Euro-North American formations.
    [Show full text]
  • Downloaded from Brill.Com09/29/2021 04:56:12PM Via Free Access 76 Cζaja
    asian medicine 8 (2013) 75–105 brill.com/asme On the History of Refining Mercury in Tibetan Medicine Olaf Czaja University of Leipzig, Germany [email protected] Abstract In this brief study, the origin and spread of the alchemical process of refining mercury in Tibetan medicine will be explored. Beginning with early sources from the eighth to the twelfth centuries, it will be argued that Orgyenpa Rinchenpel (O rgyan pa Rin chen dpal) caused a turning-point in the processing of mercury in Tibet by introducing a complex alchemical process previously unknown. This knowledge, including the manu- facturing of new pills containing mercury, soon spread through Tibet and was incorpo- rated into the medical expertise of local schools such as the Drangti school (Brang ti). Later it was most prominently practised by Nyamnyi Dorjé (Mnyam nyid rdo rje) in southern Tibet. This particular tradition was upheld by Chökyi Drakpa (Chos kyi grags pa) of the Drigung school, who taught it to his gifted student Könchok Dropen Wangpo (Dkon mchog ’gro phan dbang po). During the seventeenth century, two main transmis- sion lines for refining mercury emerged, one associated with the Gelukpa school (Dge lugs pa) in Central Tibet and one with the Kagyüpa school (Bka’ brgyud pa) and the Rimé movement (Ris med) in eastern Tibet. Both will be discussed in detail, highlight- ing important proponents and major events in their development. Finally, the situation in the twentieth century will be briefly explained. Keywords Tibetan medicine – Tibetan medical history – mercury
    [Show full text]
  • Spring/Summer 2010 in This Issue
    Spring/Summer 2010 In This Issue 1 Letter from the Venerable Khenpo Rinpoches 2 Brilliant Lotus Garland of Glorious Wisdom A Glimpse into the Ancient Lineage of Khenchen Palden Volume 9, Spring/Summer 2010 Sherab Rinpoche A Publication of 6 Entrusted: The Journey of Khenchen Rinpoche’s Begging Bowl Padmasambhava Buddhist Center 9 Fulfillment of Wishes: Nyingma Lineage of Tibetan Buddhism Eight Great Stupas & Five Dhyani Buddhas Founding Directors 12 How I Met the Khenpo Rinpoches Ven. Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche Ven. Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche 14 Schedule of Teachings 16 The Activity Samayas of Anuyoga Ani Lorraine, Co-Editor An Excerpt from the 2009 Shedra, Year 7: Anuyoga Pema Dragpa, Co-Editor Amanda Lewis, Assistant Editor 18 Garland of Views Pema Tsultrim, Coordinator Beth Gongde, Copy Editor 24 The Fruits of Service Michael Ray Nott, Art Director 26 2009 Year in Review Sandy Mueller, Production Editor PBC and Pema Mandala Office For subscriptions or contributions to the magazine, please contact: Padma Samye Ling Attn: Pema Mandala 618 Buddha Highway Sidney Center, NY 13839 (607) 865-8068 [email protected] Pema Mandala welcomes all contributions submitted for consideration. All accepted submissions will be edited appropriately for Cover: 1,000 Armed Chenrezig statue with the publication in a magazine representing the Five Dhyani Buddhas in the Shantarakshita Padmasambhava Buddhist Center. Library at Padma Samye Ling Please email submissions to Photographed by Amanda Lewis [email protected]. © Copyright 2010 by Padmasambhava Buddhist Center International. Material in this publication is copyrighted and may not be reproduced by photocopy or any other means without obtaining written permission from the publisher.
    [Show full text]
  • Constituting Canon and Community in Eleventh Century Tibet: the Extant Writings of Rongzom and His Charter of Mantrins (Sngags Pa’I Bca’ Yig)
    religions Article Constituting Canon and Community in Eleventh Century Tibet: The Extant Writings of Rongzom and His Charter of Mantrins (sngags pa’i bca’ yig) Dominic Sur Department of History, Utah State University, Logan, UT 84322-0710, USA; [email protected] Academic Editors: Michael Sheehy and Joshua Schapiro Received: 2 September 2016; Accepted: 1 March 2017; Published: 15 March 2017 Abstract: This paper explores some of the work of Rongzom Chökyi Zangpo (hereafter Rongzom) and attempts to situate his pedagogical influence within the “Old School” or Nyingma (rnying ma) tradition of Tibetan Buddhism1. A survey of Rongzom’s extant writings indicates that he was a seminal exegete and a particularly important philosopher and interpreter of Buddhism in Tibet. He was an influential intellectual flourishing in a period of cultural rebirth, when there was immense skepticism about Tibetan compositions. His work is thereby a source of insight into the indigenous Tibetan response to the transformations of a renaissance-era in which Indian provenance became the sine qua none of religious authority. Rongzom’s “charter” (bca’ yig), the primary focus of the essay, is an important document for our understanding of Old School communities of learning. While we know very little of the social realities of Old School communities in Rongzom’s time, we do know that they were a source of concern for the emerging political and religious authorities in Western Tibet. As such, the review below argues that the production of the charter should be seen, inter alia, as an effort at maintaining autonomy in the face of a rising political power.
    [Show full text]
  • TSEWANG LHAMO (D. 1812)* Jann Ronis Rom the Earliest Recorded Times, Individual Tibetan Women Have Occasionally Wielded Great Po
    POWERFUL WOMEN IN THE HISTORY OF DEGÉ: REASSESSING THE EVENTFUL REIGN OF THE DOWAGER QUEEN TSEWANG LHAMO (D. 1812)* Jann Ronis rom the earliest recorded times, individual Tibetan women have occasionally wielded great political and social power, F and have even bore feminised versions of the highest royal titles in the land. For instance, during the Imperial Period more than one woman in the royal family was called a sitting empress, tsenmo (btsan mo), and several others are immortalised in documents from Dunhuang for their important roles in government, maintenance of the royal family, and patronage of religion.1 Tantalizing, albeit disappointingly brief, snippets of narratives and official documents are all that remain in the historical record for most of the powerful women in Tibetan history, unfortunately. Not a single free-standing biographical work of a Tibetan ruling lady authored during the pre- modern period has ever come to light and, generally speaking, the best scholars can hope for are passing remarks about a given woman in two or three contemporaneous works. This paper explores the life and contested representations of one of the few relatively well- documented Tibetan female political leaders of the pre- and early- modern periods. Tsewang Lhamo (Tshe dbang lha mo, d. 1812) ruled the powerful Tibetan kingdom of Degé (Sde dge) for nearly two decades at the turn of the nineteenth century. However, before the full range of Tibetan sources now available had been published, biased profiles of Tsewang Lhamo in influential Western-language writings made this queen one of the most notorious women in the European and American narrative of Tibetan history.
    [Show full text]
  • Mao in Tibetan Disguise History, Ethnography, and Excess
    2012 | HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 2 (1): 213–245 Mao in Tibetan disguise History, ethnography, and excess Carole MCGRANAHAN, University of Colorado What Does ethnographic theory look like in Dialogue with historical anthropology? Or, what Does that theory contribute to a Discussion of Tibetan images of Mao ZeDong? In this article, I present a renegaDe history told by a Tibetan in exile that Disguises Mao in Tibetan Dress as part of his journeys on the Long March in the 1930s. BeyonD assessing its histori- cal veracity, I consider the social truths, cultural logics, and political claims embeDDeD in this history as examples of the productive excesses inherent in anD generateD by conceptual Disjunctures. KeyworDs: History, Tibet, Mao, Disjuncture, excess In the back room of an antique store in Kathmandu, I heard an unusual story on a summer day in 1994. Narrated by Sherap, the Tibetan man in his 50s who owned the store, it was about when Mao Zedong came to Tibet as part of the communist Long March through China in the 1930s in retreat from advancing Kuomintang (KMT) troops.1 “Mao and Zhu [De],” he said, “were together on the Long March. They came from Yunnan through Lithang and Nyarong, anD then to a place calleD Dapo on the banks of a river, anD from there on to my hometown, Rombatsa. Rombatsa is the site of Dhargye Gonpa [monastery], which is known for always fighting with the Chinese. Many of the Chinese DieD of starvation, anD they haD only grass shoes to wear. Earlier, the Chinese haD DestroyeD lots of Tibetan monasteries.
    [Show full text]